The International Initiative for Justice for Nagihan Akarsel has renewed its call for international action against Turkey’s alleged involvement in political femicides.
The Kurdish journalist and women’s rights activist Nagihan Akarsel was murdered on 4 October 2022 in Sulaymaniyah (Silêmanî), Iraqi Kurdistan. Akarsel’s killing was part of a broader pattern of targeted assassinations against Kurdish women, according to the initiative.
Akarsel’s murderer, a Turkish citizen by the name of Ismail Rasim Rifat Peker, had his death sentence confirmed on 24 December 2023 by the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s Court of Cassation. However, the initiative argues that the Turkish state officials who allegedly orchestrated the killing have not been held accountable. “Numerous testimonies and evidence show that Turkish state authorities organised the assassination of Nagihan Akarsel,” the initiative said, stressing that more people were involved in the crime, including the Turkish intelligence agency (MİT). The group claims that no legal action has been taken against those who ordered the murder, notwithstanding Peker’s conviction.
The initiative’s statement linked Akarsel’s assassination to a wider campaign of targeted killings against Kurdish activists, particularly women’s rights defenders. They cited several high-profile cases, including the killings of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez in Paris in 2013, and more recently, the assassination of journalists Gulîstan Tara and Hêro Bahadîn by a Turkish drone strike in Sulaymaniyah in August 2024. “From 2023 to July 2024, a total of 30 civilians, including four children, were massacred by the Turkish army in southern Kurdistan,” the statement continued.
The initiative also expressed frustration over the lack of international action. A response from the European Union’s External Action office in Iraq noted that the EU was monitoring the case but had taken no concrete steps to ensure accountability or to protect the lives of Kurdish women activists. “The political inaction of international organisations has encouraged the Turkish Justice and Development Party (AKP) / National Movement Party (MHP) coalition government to further intensify the assassination of Kurdish politicians, especially Kurdish women leaders and journalists,” the statement read.
The Initiative urged international bodies such as the United Nations and the Council of Europe to act immediately. Their demands included prosecuting those responsible for Akarsel’s murder, closing Iraqi and Syrian airspace to Turkish military drones, and prosecuting Turkey’s leadership for war crimes and femicides. “We call on journalists, academics and human rights organisations to address the political dimension of these murders,” the group stated, calling for collective efforts to hold Turkey accountable for its actions.
